- Moderator
- #1
After I’d spent a really enjoyable weekend in Helsinki, a city I’d highly recommend for people to visit, and a good couple of hours plane spotting on the scenic terrace at Helsinki airport it was time for me to leave Finland and make my way back to England.
I was flying with Finnair again but this time in economy. I’d already dropped my checked bag using Finnair self-service machines so headed straight through to security which was pretty quick as Helsinki have the new scanners where everything stays in the bag. After security I did a bit of shopping in duty free and then headed through immigration to the non-Schengen area where I preceded to the Finnair lounge. I purchased access to this as an extra as I was curious to see what the lounge was like and it didn’t disappoint. The food options were pretty good and tasty, it had it’s own bar and the lounge was spacious with various different types of seating and it was a nice area to spend an hour or more before my flight. Only downside is there were no apron views.
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After my time in the lounge I headed to my gate which was gate 47 and was about a 15 minute walk from the lounge but I did stop several times to take photos of the aircraft on the apron, I even managed to get a photo of the aircraft that had brought me from Heathrow, and to examine what looked like a relaxation area in the terminal. I’d also noticed a different one on my arrival in Helsinki a couple of days ago. In general, the airport was busy but not overcrowded and was a nice experience to walk through. One thing I did notice in this the non-Schengen part of the airport is that there seemed quite a few Asian food outlets which I expect is to cater towards the large amount of flights to and from Japan that Finnair operate.
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After a brief sit down at the gate my aircraft arrived from Stockholm to take me to Manchester. That aircraft was OH-LKI a 17-year-old Embraer E190 operated on behalf of Finnair by NORRA. The E190 a is a regional jet with a 2-2 layout and can carry up to 100 passengers and is an aircraft type I’ve flown on many times with KLM and Flybe usually on flights not over 2 hours but todays flight would be the longest sector I’ve done on such an aircraft 2 hours 50 minutes. It wasn’t long until we started boarding. My seat was 6F a normal economy seat with decent legroom and a good view of the engine and wing. The flight was completely full but boarding didn’t seem to take that long and we were pushing back and taxied to runway 22R for takeoff and departure from Finland with our route taking us over Sweden, Norway, the North Sea and the Yorkshire Dales. It wasn’t too long before the service was started. On Finnair short haul economy service is complimentary water and blueberry juice with snacks and food and other beverages available to purchase. I’d pre ordered online a reindeer meat sandwich which had cream cheese with it and came with a smoothie and chocolate bar which cost around £7.50. The food was nice though the cheese overpowered any flavour of the reindeer. The flight was pretty uneventful, and I was able to have a nap for a while. Eventually we started making our approach to Manchester airport and landed on runway 23R. There was a bit of queue to taxi to our gate but eventually we arrived at Terminal 1 10 minutes after our scheduled arrival time. Going through immigration was quick enough and after picking up my checked bag I was coming through to arrivals around 30 minutes after landing and headed to the train station to make my way back to Leeds.
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Overall I had a really good flight with Finnair/NORRA the crew were really nice and prompt with the service though being more at the front probably helped with that and the seat was comfortable enough for intra-European flight. Helsinki as an airport was a good experience and wasn’t overly busy despite lots of flights departing. The whole trip in general was a good experience and I’ll definitely look at Finnair again as an airline to travel on especially to the Nordics and Baltics and maybe even one day to Japan.
I was flying with Finnair again but this time in economy. I’d already dropped my checked bag using Finnair self-service machines so headed straight through to security which was pretty quick as Helsinki have the new scanners where everything stays in the bag. After security I did a bit of shopping in duty free and then headed through immigration to the non-Schengen area where I preceded to the Finnair lounge. I purchased access to this as an extra as I was curious to see what the lounge was like and it didn’t disappoint. The food options were pretty good and tasty, it had it’s own bar and the lounge was spacious with various different types of seating and it was a nice area to spend an hour or more before my flight. Only downside is there were no apron views.
View media item 19437
View media item 19438
View media item 19439
View media item 19440
View media item 19441
After my time in the lounge I headed to my gate which was gate 47 and was about a 15 minute walk from the lounge but I did stop several times to take photos of the aircraft on the apron, I even managed to get a photo of the aircraft that had brought me from Heathrow, and to examine what looked like a relaxation area in the terminal. I’d also noticed a different one on my arrival in Helsinki a couple of days ago. In general, the airport was busy but not overcrowded and was a nice experience to walk through. One thing I did notice in this the non-Schengen part of the airport is that there seemed quite a few Asian food outlets which I expect is to cater towards the large amount of flights to and from Japan that Finnair operate.
View media item 19442
View media item 19443
After a brief sit down at the gate my aircraft arrived from Stockholm to take me to Manchester. That aircraft was OH-LKI a 17-year-old Embraer E190 operated on behalf of Finnair by NORRA. The E190 a is a regional jet with a 2-2 layout and can carry up to 100 passengers and is an aircraft type I’ve flown on many times with KLM and Flybe usually on flights not over 2 hours but todays flight would be the longest sector I’ve done on such an aircraft 2 hours 50 minutes. It wasn’t long until we started boarding. My seat was 6F a normal economy seat with decent legroom and a good view of the engine and wing. The flight was completely full but boarding didn’t seem to take that long and we were pushing back and taxied to runway 22R for takeoff and departure from Finland with our route taking us over Sweden, Norway, the North Sea and the Yorkshire Dales. It wasn’t too long before the service was started. On Finnair short haul economy service is complimentary water and blueberry juice with snacks and food and other beverages available to purchase. I’d pre ordered online a reindeer meat sandwich which had cream cheese with it and came with a smoothie and chocolate bar which cost around £7.50. The food was nice though the cheese overpowered any flavour of the reindeer. The flight was pretty uneventful, and I was able to have a nap for a while. Eventually we started making our approach to Manchester airport and landed on runway 23R. There was a bit of queue to taxi to our gate but eventually we arrived at Terminal 1 10 minutes after our scheduled arrival time. Going through immigration was quick enough and after picking up my checked bag I was coming through to arrivals around 30 minutes after landing and headed to the train station to make my way back to Leeds.
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View media item 19449
Overall I had a really good flight with Finnair/NORRA the crew were really nice and prompt with the service though being more at the front probably helped with that and the seat was comfortable enough for intra-European flight. Helsinki as an airport was a good experience and wasn’t overly busy despite lots of flights departing. The whole trip in general was a good experience and I’ll definitely look at Finnair again as an airline to travel on especially to the Nordics and Baltics and maybe even one day to Japan.
